Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden The oldest public wildflower garden in the United States

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season

Wild Ginger

Asarum canadense L.

Birthwort (Aristolochiaceae)

Woodland

Spring to Early Summer

Other names and notes

(Canadian Wild Ginger) Wild Ginger is a native erect perennial low growing forb, up to 8" high, usually appearing in clumps. There are no aerial stems. Leaves: There are two stalked leaves that are broadly kidney-shaped to heart shaped with deeply cleft bases, acute to pointed tips when young, more rounded with age. These two leaves ascend from the tip of the short main stem, which lies prostrate on the ground. Leaf stalks are very hairy. The undersides have fine hair and the upper surface may also along the veins. The leaves are actually alternate but so closely spaced that they appear opposite. Mature leaves can be large - up to 6" across. The inflorescence is a solitary flower on a short stalk rising between the bases of the two leaf stalks. The flower consists of a a false calyx tube formed by three sepals, the outside of which is tan to, usually, purplish, with dense hair. The tips of the sepal lobes from a long linear tooth that spreads outward. The inside apex of the false tube is a deeper color, hairy, with an inner white to pale yellowish-green color. The actual petals of the flower are vestigial or absent.
Inside the false tube there are 12 stamens which are shorter than, and surround, six purplish styles which are united in a central column from the ovary. Seed: A 6-celled fleshy seed capsule forms from the fertile flower. It contains numerous dark brown, somewhat 3-sided hard seeds.

Habitat: Wild Ginger grows from a root system of thin rhizomes in rich to loamy soils and needs light shade and moist to not quite dry conditions. Colonies form via creeping rhizomes and by seed. It is the root that has the taste and smell of ginger. Propagation by seed is difficult. Much easier is dividing mature plants in the fall before dormancy. The rhizome can be cut into 6 or 8" sections and planted immediately. Fall is also the time to collect roots for drying. As the plants form a clump, another method is to simply divide off an outer section of the clump and move it. Wild Ginger is considered un-attractive to deer. Eloise Butler's thoughts on this plant are given below. Names: The rhizomes of the root have a ginger flavor, hence the common name. The genus name Asarum, is derived from asaron, the ancient Greek name for a now unidentified plant. The species name, canadense, refers to 'of Canada'. The author name for the plant classification, 'L.', is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy. Comparisons: No other plant resembles this one in our geographic area. There are six recognized species of Asarum. All the others are west coast species.

Above: The flower stalk rises from between the two leaves. Below: The 3 purplish sepals form a false calyx tube. Petals are absent. The stamens are seen surrounding the six united styles.

Below left: Where the two leaf stalks diverge from the main stem, the flower stalk rises. Stems and stalks are hairy. Below right: The leaves have an intricate vein pattern, are heart to kidney shaped with a rounded tip. The lower surface and the margin is hairy, sometimes the upper surface also.

Notes: Eloise Butler's records show that she first planted Wild Ginger plants obtained on May 25, 1907 from the "govt' reservation" at Minnehaha (presumably the area near Fort Snelling and the Bureau of Mines.) It is included on Martha Crone's 1951 census of plants in the Garden and presumably has been in the Garden continuously. It was replanted as recently as 2012. It is native to Minnesota in most counties except those in the SW quadrant. In North America it is found from the Dakotas and Manitoba eastward to the coast, Florida and the maritime provinces excepted. This is the only species of Asarum found in Minnesota.

Lore and uses: There is documentation of Native American use of the plant for medicinal purposes. Densmore (Ref.#5) reports the Minnesota Chippewa used the root as an appetizer by adding it to food while cooking and the dried root was also chewed to treat indigestion. The roots contain a volatile oil, a resin, a bitter principle called 'asarin', alkaloids, sugar and a camphor like substance (Ref. #7).

Eloise Butler wrote: "Many will not observe the flower of the wild ginger, although they cannot fail to see the large round leaves. But when one has learned the habit of the plant, he will stoop to look between the leaves for the purplish-red flower-bell bent down to the ground and tricked out with three slender horns. The enigma is easily interpreted: If the curious should lift up the flower to gaze upon it, the horns would protect it from the “evil eye”! With closer approach one perceives another charm - the delightful aromatic odor. Some persons carry about with them a piece of the thick rootstalk as a specific for bodily ills." (Published in the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune, May 7, 1911 - Complete article)